A/N: It hasn't been that long since I've updated has it? Oh, two weeks you say? :-( Ooops! Sorry everyone! I've been kind of preoccupied with life and other projects. I was really stuck on what I was going to write next for this, but now that I have this chapter out of the way, I think I should be on a roll now. Props to Brella, or Satellites on Parade for kind of giving me the inspiration for this chapter! Thanks, girl! Hope you all enjoy! XD

DISCLAIMER: Unfortunately, none of these characters belong to me. If Wally West belonged to me, I would be the only one allowed to play with him ;-) Any dialogue or plot that looks familiar belongs to DC and Greg Weisman and other people who are not me.

Summary: This is the story of Artemis and Wally and their evolution from teammates, to friends, to boyfriend and girlfriend, to husband and wife, to soul mates and everything and anything in between. Please review! XD

Genre: Friendship, Romance, Action/Adventure, Humor

Rating: T (just to be safe, it might go up later if I'm feeling particularly ambitious)

Characters: Artemis Crock, Wally West

The EVOLUTION of SOUL MATES

Evolution: the gradual development of something, esp. from a simple to a more complex form.

Chapter 10: Friend

Artemis was used to bad dreams. There was rarely a night that went by where she didn't wake up, clutching her sheets desperately, tears forming in her eyes against her will. Usually, she took a few deep, calming breaths and tried to fall back asleep. Tonight, however, it just wasn't happening.

No matter which way Artemis tossed or turned, she couldn't get comfortable. You would think that the combined resources of the Justice League could afford comfier mattresses. Or maybe it wasn't the mattress, but the unfamiliarity of the room she was in. They all had their own rooms at the Cave, but she rarely if ever slept there. The Team had gotten back from India around 10:00 PM, and yet no one had felt like going home. Perhaps they wanted to feel closer to each other after their earlier disconnect; whatever it had been, they had all agreed to sleep over at the Cave for the night. As Artemis tried in vain to fall back asleep, however, she was beginning to regret her decision to stay.

With a huff she turned over and lay on her back, staring up at the dark ceiling. Maybe if she counted sheep…Her stomach gurgled loudly, banishing that thought and any chance of returning to sleep from her mind.

"All right, all right, I'm up," she grumbled, sitting up and setting her feet on the floor.

With a resigned sigh she got up and padded over to her door. Maybe something to drink would help her sleep. She hit the release button on her door, and it slid open with a hiss. The hallways of the Cave were lit but deserted, as Artemis had expected. She hadn't looked at the time, but it had to be about 3 a.m. if she had to take a guess. All of her teammates were sure to be snug in their beds, fast asleep. She was sure they didn't wake up in terror at night torn over things that shouldn't have happened but did, mistakes they'd made that couldn't be taken back.

Evidently, it seemed she wasn't the only one in the Cave having a hard time drifting off into dreamland. When she walked into the kitchen, she encountered the messy bed head of their resident speedster. In front of him sat a half eaten sandwich and a glass of milk. He sat facing away from her, his body hunched over, staring off into space. If there was one thing Artemis had learned about Wally since joining the Team, it was that if he wasn't eating something, something was eating him.

"Can't sleep, either?" she asked, stepping into the kitchen. The cold tile felt refreshing against her bare feet as she made her way over to him.

"Huh?" Wally mumbled, startled. He snuck a look at her. "Oh, hey, Artemis," he said, yawning. Suddenly, he whipped his head back around to stare at her. "Why aren't you wearing any pants?" he asked, his voice cracking noticeably. His eyes rapidly looked her up and down, and she would have laughed at the color spreading across his face if she didn't feel her own cheeks flush.

I knew I was forgetting something, she thought, glancing down at her attire, or lack thereof. She didn't have many clothes at the Cave besides spare uniforms, so for pajamas she had had to make due with an oversized Gotham Knights t-shirt that she used to work out in. It fell down to her knees, but Wally's gaze made her feel it wasn't covering nearly enough.

"Uh, I don't normally keep a lot of clothes here," she said, quickly moving to opposite him so that the island in the kitchen was between them, hiding her legs from his view. "Better?" she asked, her face still burning, although she felt a sick sort of satisfaction at the fact that she could affect him this way.

Wally gulped staring at the place where her legs had been, before glancing away awkwardly. "Uh, yeah," he stuttered. She watched in amusement as his eyes raced around the room, trying to find somewhere to rest on. They finally settled back on her, flicking down to her shirt. "Gotham Knights, huh?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with them?" Artemis asked, crossing her arms across her chest. The Knights had been her favorite team since she was a little girl, possibly due to the fact that her father was a fan of the Gotham Griffins, the city's other pro baseball team.

"Nothing, just thought you would be a Rocket's fan, being from Star City and all," Wally said.

Artemis turned away towards the fridge hastily to hide her cringe. Stupid, stupid. Quick, come up with something believable. "Uh, I have family in Gotham," she told him, grabbing the milk from inside the fridge. Hey, it wasn't completely a lie. "They're all Knights fans. You could say I kind of just jumped on the bandwagon."

Wally snorted. "Figures. Not that it matters anyway. The Central City Stars are going all the way this year."

Artemis laughed out loud, pouring herself a glass of milk. "With the way they've been pitching? They'll be lucky if they make it to the playoffs."

"Care to put some money on it?" Wally asked, and Artemis finally felt in control enough to turn around and face him.

"Maybe," she said, taking a sip of her glass.

"Whoever's team makes it the farthest by the end of the season wins," Wally pronounced. "Loser has to buy dinner for the winner."

Artemis nearly spit out her milk. That sounded suspiciously like a play for a date, but she didn't dare point it out. "Are you kidding?" she sputtered. "There's no way I'd ever have enough money to feed that bottomless pit you call a stomach."

"What part of 'I have a metabolism problem' does no one understand?" Wally groaned. He perked up after a second and smirked at her. "It sounds like you're admitting defeat already."

Artemis narrowed her eyes at him. "Never. Challenge accepted."

The young speedster stuck his hand out to shake on it, and Artemis felt a spark of something pass between them when their hands touched. Static electricity, maybe. She ignored it, and they both pulled their hands away.

"So, you never said what you were doing up this late," Artemis said nonchalantly, wondering what kinds of things kept the characteristically upbeat speedster up at night.

"Just thinking about the mission today," he said solemnly. "I don't know, I just never got a chance to apologize to Kaldur for being such a jerk." He scratched the back of his head self-consciously, and Artemis was struck by how contrite he looked. She believed he was truly sorry, and the thought melted her heart a bit.

"We all owe him an apology," Artemis said. "Yeah, maybe he shouldn't have kept what Sportsmaster told him a secret," she said, her father's alias leaving a bitter taste in her mouth, "But he was just doing what he thought was best as our team leader."

Wally nodded, picking at his sandwich. Artemis waited, knowing that something was still on his mind. "I can't believe he thought one of us could have been a mole, though," he blurted out, using both of his hands to grip the countertop.

"Anything Sportsmaster said would have been enough to plant the seed of doubt," Artemis reasoned. Knowing her father, he now had knowledge of her place on the Team and had been trying to point fingers in her direction. "Kaldur had to make sure that his claims weren't true."

Wally scoffed. "If I hadn't seen Red Tornado betray us with my own two eyes, I would have a hard time believing anyone on the Team could be a traitor."

"Well, that just goes to show how naïve you are," Artemis snapped before she could stop herself. Betrayal was a running theme in her life. It was something that could happen to anyone, at any moment, and if she knew that if you didn't protect yourself properly, there was no stopping it from happening to you.

Wally's stare was hard as he looked at her. "Is it naïve of me to trust my friends?" he asked. "To believe that they have my back? Then, yeah, maybe I am naïve."

"Am I included in that?" her traitorous mouth asked. But her heart raced at his potential answer. All she'd ever wanted deep down was to be accepted by the Team, but most of all by him. He who had so protested at her inclusion in the first place, who hadn't hesitated to point out all of her mistakes. But, it wasn't like that anymore. Ever since Bialya, he'd changed his attitude towards her. He talked to her without disdain or forced friendliness. She thought that if they could at least be friends, she wouldn't crave more: Wouldn't grow jealous at the sight of him flirting with M'gann; wouldn't yearn to have his hand in hers like it had been in Bialya.

Wally's forehead crinkled in confusion. "Well, yeah," he simply said. She thought she detected that red flush on his face from before. "I mean, we are friends, right?"

"Right," Artemis confirmed, wondering if her relief was apparent on her face.

"Good," Wally said, nodding his head. He cleared his throat, unnecessarily. "So, we've, uh, been over why I'm awake. What are you doing up?"

Artemis looked down at her hands remembering the nightmare that had woken her up. Her, crumpled on the floor as her teammates, her friends all stood around her, looking down on her without pity. Voices, their voices, telling her that she didn't belong on the team. Kaldur's voice, demanding to know why she didn't tell them who her father was, who her sister was, what her mother had done. Wally's harsh voice, hissing that he never wanted to lay eyes on her ever again.

She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. "Bad dream," she said, shrugging her shoulders. A part of her wanted to confide in him, but she didn't want to appear weak.

"Oh, did you, do you want to talk about it?" he asked, running a hand through his red hair, a habit Artemis had learned he did when he was feeling uncomfortable.

She decided to take pity on him. "That's okay. I don't really remember what it was about," Artemis lied easily. She drained the last of her milk and took the glass over the sink to rinse it out. "I better be getting back to bed," she said, turning back to face him.

"Yeah, same," he said, quickly downing the last of his milk and speeding over to the sink with his glass and plate. He threw the rest of his uneaten sandwich out and placed the items in the sink.

"Goodnight, Wally," she said, giving him a half smile, and beginning to turn away, feeling the exhaustion of the day finally creep over her body.

"Your hair looks nice like that," came his blurted out reply.

Artemis turned back to face him, her eyebrows raised high. Yes, her hair was out of its customary ponytail for once and flowing down to her waist, but she never would have expected him of all people to comment on it.

"I, I mean, it's a nice change from it, you know, being up all the time?" He ended his stuttered out sentence on a high note, making it sound like a question, as if he wasn't at all sure what he was saying.

"Um, thanks," she replied, tucking her bangs behind her ear self-consciously. Wally gave her a tight-lipped smile, which was her cue to go. If she had looked back before she'd left the kitchen, she would have seen Wally with his head in his hands, shaking it back and forth.

Artemis made her way back down the hallway to her room. Once sequestered inside, she leaned back against her door. Who was she kidding thinking she could be friends with Wally without wanting more? It was going to be like torture.

Maybe, though, if she showed him that she cared, if she went out of her way to do little things for him, he would see that she could be more than just a friend.

A/N: See what I did there? Kind of like a lead in to Revelations and the breather and the arm sling thing. XD Ohhhh, yeah. Anyway, I will probably be skipping doing anything for Revelations or Humanity and get right to the goods. That's right, Failsafe chapter(s) up next guys! Can you handle the feels? I don't think you can!

Sidenote: OMG HOW CUTE IS OUR FAVORITE COUPLE GUYS? 5 years! 5 years they've been together! And that gives me all sorts of wonderful ideas for this story! I kind of want to just skip ahead and do like Date, Classmate, Roommate, and all sorts of fun stuff like that, but I promised myself that I'd go in chronological order...

Sidenote 2: Which is a Shamless Plug. I highly encourage everyone to check out superheroes-at-stanford (.) tumblr (.) com. I've decided to write some TV scripts based on Wally and Artemis leaving the team to go to school at Stanford. So, check that out if you're interested. XD

Thanks for reviewing and favoriting and story alerting this guys! You rock!

~ Melissa